


I Waited. For Only You.

by typewrittencurlie



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Arthur Pendragon Returns (Merlin), Immortal Merlin (Merlin), Love Confessions, M/M, Resurrection, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:28:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24798454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/typewrittencurlie/pseuds/typewrittencurlie
Summary: After centuries, Merlin has given up on ever hearing the three words Arthur had never uttered.After a millennium, he'd given up on life.As he walks home in the bustling London streets, he catches a fleeting glimpse of red, gold and blue.Arthur.
Relationships: Merlin & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 162





	I Waited. For Only You.

**Author's Note:**

> I have honestly no idea why I wrote this, but here you go.
> 
> Happy Pride month, by the way.
> 
> ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

Merlin was older than the City. All of its history, like a infant's pondering of adulthood compared to the endless _enduring._ He had seen everything destroyed when the Romans invaded, even Leon, the one he had thought immortal, had been captured and lost to the grieving warlock.

He couldn't find it in him to even think of...

The funny thing was, though they never uttered the words, Merlin carried the hope that Arthur loved him in his heart. He had said nearly as much with his dying breaths that there was no possible way to interpret the words differently. And yet he had left for the Goddess' embrace even as Merlin attempted to return the sentiments.

He prayed to the Her with his every breath for a miracle. Albion was dust in the wind, but Arthur had never returned, not even in her darkest hour. Could he come back to him as the fragile remains of his kingdom? Come back to the man who would burn the heavens if only to see his smile?

A tear rolled over his cheek, even as he was roughly jostled in the evening rush. His Arthur was just a mouldering pile of bones in a long forgotten lake. He wasn't ever going to see that arrogant clotpole.

"Excuse me? Can someone- Help me, please! What year is it?!"

A flash of golden hair and a swirl of his heart's-mate's red cloak in the distance and his King's confused begging had the ancient warlock struggling against the crowd.

"Arthur!" Merlin cried out, as he used his bony arms to push the younglings out of his way. "Arthur bloody Pendragon!"

Merlin fell into the opening in the crowd, the stupid commoners giving his King a wide berth, not knowing, not realizing that this was the return of the Golden Era.

Gauntleted hands helped the warlock to his feet with a gentleness he had known only in his most desperate of dreams. He looked up into the oceans of blue, and smiled. "Arthur."

* * *

"Merlin. I -" Arthur had never had an inkling of the beauty of his manservant, not until the end. He'd loved the silly man with all of his being, but it wasn't until he saw how his manservant had sacrificed everything he was, everything he could be, that he saw the majesty of the man he knew simply as Merlin.

The strange people in this bizarre new world parted around them like a herd, not noticing even as Arthur pressed his lips to his beloved's.

Maybe it was acceptable in the modern world.

The only thing that registered in the former King's mind was a feeling of _rightness,_ like a fragment of his soul falling into its natural place. Merlin felt the same, from the feverish way he was returning the kiss, like he had been underwater his entire life, and Arthur's lips were as air.

Arthur cradled Merlin's head in his hands, gently pulling away to gaze into the blue orbs that flickered golden like lightning on a lake. "Merlin. I missed you."

Paltry words for a time such as this, but it soothed the ache in his chest to make it known.

"As I missed you, my King. As I missed you."

* * *

"Is this your home?"

Merlin nodded over his shoulder to Arthur, the ache in his heart softly throbbing as he refused to say the words Merlin needed in the hour it had taken them to return to his flat.

He placed a pair of sweatpants and an old tee on the arm of the couch that doubled as his bed. He left Arthur in the small room that he called his residence to get a few items of food from his kitchen. Merlin paused, gripping the countertop and gritting his teeth against the mournful sobs longing to burst forth.

_Why couldn't he say it?_

_Why_ must Arthur look at him like he was the reason he breathed, and yet not tell him the three easy words he'd waited over a thousand years to hear?

"Merlin? What's wrong?" Arthur looked like everything Merlin had dreamed of in his darkest moments of despair. "Did... Did I do something to hurt you?"

"Do you kiss all of your manservants, or am I just special?" _Plink. Plink._ The dull noise of Merlin's tears hitting the metal sink broke the silence, as Arthur apparently struggled for words. "Is it too much to ask for? I don't need _poetry,_ Arthur, but by the Mother, I've waited long enough." Merlin tried and failed to keep the bitterness from his voice.

"Merlin, I thought you knew... I thought it was obvious." Arthur took his hands, callused thumbs rubbing the pale skin, as Merlin looked into the concerned eyes of his love. "I love you Merlin. I conquered death to be at your side. My love for another could never be as true and as deep as the love I have for you. You _idiot,_ I have loved you even as I was forced to marry Guinevere in your place."

Merlin swayed on his feet, his eyes drifting closed, as Arthur's heartfelt words quenched the all-consuming fires in his soul. "I would burn the world, the heavens and the earth, and the rivers would run red at your command, my beloved." His wrath against the invaders was rekindled, when he thought of the burning of Camelot. "I love you more than I could ever demonstrate, and carried this flame longer than any empire has ever been in existence."

He rested his forehead on Arthur's broad shoulder, humming a gentle tune, from the first feast in which he'd saved Arthur's life.

"I know that song... Even then?"

"Even when I hated you and all you stood for, I needed you to be complete." Merlin pressed his lips to Arthur's neck, trailing across the golden skin and raising goosebumps in their wake. "It's always been a comfort to me, thinking of you when the loneliness devours me whole. When I ache for the brush of skin against my own, and my virginity to be claimed by someone worthy of a creature of the Old Religion."

The words seemed to induce the desired effect, Arthur shifting his thighs, trying to conceal the bugle tenting his borrowed pants. "I've never lain with a man, Merlin... Gods how I've longed for you, though." Arthur's breath was becoming ragged, as Merlin looked at him with lust darkened eyes. He had waited long enough, and refused to wait longer for his first time. He wanted his lover in his bed.

"Arthur, I have lain with no one. Never taken a lover to warm my bed in your absence. I need you to lay claim to me. Take me Arthur. Don't be gentle."

* * *

"Merlin! Gods... _Yes..._ " Arthur was just at the edge of bliss, as Merlin released into his lover's insistent hand. The magical wave passed through his King harmlessly, yet caused havoc with the technology in the room. He could care less.

With a final stuttering of his hips, Arthur was flooding Merlin with his seed, rocking softly as his body lost the relentless energy. They lay panting at each other's side, the room, the time, the place ceasing to matter.

To them, it was as if nothing had changed but that the passionate love between them was no longer unspoken. For all they cared, they were in Arthur's goose down bed, on silken sheets, the soft sounds of Camelot at dusk accompanying their slowing hearts.

They had each other once more, the world could end around them, and the radiant smiles wouldn't fade from their faces. 

Because at long last, Arthur and Merlin were one.


End file.
